Ron did it!!

As of this morning Ron Natalie is an instrument rated pilot!! I guess
all those impromptu extra vacation days due to haze are over :-). This
is great!

Margy

In article ,
Margy Natalie wrote:

As of this morning Ron Natalie is an instrument rated pilot!! I guess
all those impromptu extra vacation days due to haze are over :-). This
is great!

congrats!!

--
Bob Noel
Looking for a sig the
lawyers will hate

Congrats!

Now remember, IFR in a light plane can only really safely go in about
20% of the instrument weather mother nature can throw at you.

However, an instrument rated pilot can go in about 40% of the VFR
weather that would have been too risky for a VFR-only pilot to attempt,
due to the the risk of weather closing in being too great.

Therefore paradoxically, by getting an instrument rating you will find
yourself flying a lot more VFR than you had before :-)


Margy Natalie wrote:
As of this morning Ron Natalie is an instrument rated pilot!! I guess
all those impromptu extra vacation days due to haze are over :-). This
is great!

Margy

"M" wrote in news:1159126950.376577.321490
@e3g2000cwe.googlegroups.com:

Now remember, IFR in a light plane can only really safely go in about
20% of the instrument weather mother nature can throw at you.

However, an instrument rated pilot can go in about 40% of the VFR
weather that would have been too risky for a VFR-only pilot to attempt,
due to the the risk of weather closing in being too great.

Really, sure hope you are saying the above "tongue in cheek"???? If
not, where are you getting your statistics as my own personal experiences
sure contradict what you say above???

Since getting my instrument ticket, I have only scrubbed two XC flights
due to thunderstorms in which one was this past friday from the long cold
front pushing through. Where I live, icing is a very rare encounter
(KMBO - Madison MS) though it does happen, just I have not had to scrub a
flight due to icing conditions. Can't speak for the northern folks.

Before my instrument ticket, I can't tell you how many XC flights I have
scrubbed due to benign IMC conditions. One was too many, but if I had to
guess it was between 7 and 10 flights.

Therefore paradoxically, by getting an instrument rating you will find
yourself flying a lot more VFR than you had before :-)

Nope, what happens is that you find yourself flying towards VFR
conditions, by getting on top of the cloud deck. The IA rating gives you
an expanded oppurtunity to getting to visual conditions rather then
having to scud run and the such.

Allen

A Lieberma wrote:
Really, sure hope you are saying the above "tongue in cheek"????

I think what he says is about right - or used to be, anyway, before
things like XM cockpit weather became available. Geography is a factor
as well.

Since getting my instrument ticket, I have only scrubbed two XC flights
due to thunderstorms

I think in the last five years I've scrubbed one - an Angel Flight that
would have required me to fly directly into the center of tropical
storm Charlie. I offered to buy my patient an airline ticket, but it
turned out that the airlines weren't flying either. Of course I have a
stormscope and excellent range (if I slow down I can cover 800+ nm).

Before I owned my current airplane, I scrubbed a lot of flights. The
range was not much more than 300 nm, and I had no weather avoidance
capability. The airplane makes a big difference.

Without cockpit weather, IMC in convective conditions is a fool's game
- and if you won't fly IMC, there's not much point in IFR (other than
dealing with the increasingly insane airspace these days). In just the
past few years, cockpit weather went from being something generally
available only in the high end airplanes (never have seen a Skyhawk
with a stormscope, though nothing prevents it) and often of
questionable utility (the older spherics units were very
installation-dependent and often worked poorly), to being the province
of technogeeks willing to carry laptops or PDA's in the cockpit, and
finally to a well-conceived integrated system like the Garmin 396. The
latter has made IMC flying in convective weather accessible to the
average pilot of a low end single, but it is a new thing.

Where I live, icing is a very rare encounter
(KMBO - Madison MS) though it does happen, just I have not had to scrub a
flight due to icing conditions. Can't speak for the northern folks.

I'm based out of Houston, so icing is even rarer for me - but when I
travel up north, it's an issue. I've seen a lot of people taking
chances with it. Personally, if I have the choice of flying low VFR
(say making the entire flight at 800-1200 ft) or going IFR in clouds
with the potential for icing, I'll choose low VFR every time.

Once I made a winter flight from Houston to New York, and it was IFR.
I made it a point to stay below the freezing level, with a way to bail
out if I couldn't stay above MIA and below the ice. Well, I made it -
but while I never doubted my ability escape the ice (I always had an
out) I wasn't sure I would make my destination until I was about 50
miles out. It was a 600+ nm leg. I could have been forced to land
short at any time. And with 300+ hp, I have some ability to deal with
a little ice. In my old 150 hp plane, I wouldn't have tried it.

Before my instrument ticket, I can't tell you how many XC flights I have
scrubbed due to benign IMC conditions.

Benign IMC - or just low VFR? These days, I see a lot of VFR pilots
who won't fly XC at 1000 AGL, never mind lower. It's a skill set, to
be sure, and not something to tackle if you don't know how, but I think
in the average Skyhawk-class airplane, it's often the safer, quicker,
more sensible option than filing IFR.

The difference is that you can take a training course in how to fly IFR
at the local flight school (or, better yet, the way Ron did it - with
PIC, which is expensive but worth it because it uses only experienced
instructors) but instruction in flying low VFR is rarely available
(never at the local flight school) and is generally reviled as scud
running.

In my experience, over 80% of the weather that is persistent (lasting
more than a few hours) actual IMC (ceilings consistently below 1000 ft
and/or visibilities consistently below 3 miles - and even some of that
weather can legally be flown VFR, with safety no worse than flying it
IFR in the average light single) is associated with either icing or
thunderstorms. Of course that can vary geographically.

The instrument rating is, more than anything, a tool for making
schedules more consistent. It is not a timesaver. I have well over
100 hours actual IMC, and I still have to say that the total time I
have saved in eliminated delays for weather is less than the time I
spent getting the rating and staying current.

Michael

These days, I see a lot of VFR pilots
who won't fly XC at 1000 AGL, never mind lower. It's a skill set, to
be sure, and not something to tackle if you don't know how...

It's my favorite altitude. However, there are a lot more towers to
dodge nowadays. Twenty years ago there were virtually no cell towers to
worry about.

Jose
--
"Never trust anything that can think for itself, if you can't see where
it keeps its brain." (chapter 10 of book 3 - Harry Potter).
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

Jose wrote:

It's my favorite altitude. However, there are a lot more towers to
dodge nowadays. Twenty years ago there were virtually no cell towers to
worry about.

Cell towers rarely top 200', most are much less.

M wrote:
Congrats!

Now remember, IFR in a light plane can only really safely go in about
20% of the instrument weather mother nature can throw at you.

However, an instrument rated pilot can go in about 40% of the VFR
weather that would have been too risky for a VFR-only pilot to attempt,
due to the the risk of weather closing in being too great.

Therefore paradoxically, by getting an instrument rating you will find
yourself flying a lot more VFR than you had before :-)

Uh, ok. That's not the case for me, nor most of the pilots I know.

Congratulations to Ron anyway. But...why isn't he posting all about the
ride?

On Sun, 24 Sep 2006 16:43:19 -0500, Emily
wrote:

M wrote:
Congrats!

Therefore paradoxically, by getting an instrument rating you will find
yourself flying a lot more VFR than you had before :-)

Uh, ok. That's not the case for me, nor most of the pilots I know.

That may refer to the fact that most IFR flights are flown in VMC.
After a few minutes of climbing through IMC, you're in sunshine for
the rest of the flight. Considering that you'd be at home watching
television otherwise, you do more VFR flying.

RK Henry

Emily wrote:
M wrote:

Congrats!

Now remember, IFR in a light plane can only really safely go in about
20% of the instrument weather mother nature can throw at you.

However, an instrument rated pilot can go in about 40% of the VFR
weather that would have been too risky for a VFR-only pilot to attempt,
due to the the risk of weather closing in being too great.

Therefore paradoxically, by getting an instrument rating you will find
yourself flying a lot more VFR than you had before :-)


Uh, ok. That's not the case for me, nor most of the pilots I know.

Congratulations to Ron anyway. But...why isn't he posting all about the
ride?
Well, he woke up at 5 to go get the plane, fly it over to the examiner
.....

He got home about 1, we went to DC for a late lunch (double lobster
special) to celebrate, came home about 6 and he's taking a nap :-).
Probably shouldn't have scheduled a late, black-tie event the night
before an early checkride ;-).

Margy